A very satisfying episode, as several characters start to connect the dots.

At the start of this episode Joyce Byers is isolated. Neither her son (Jonathan) nor the cop (Hopper) believe her crazy story. Not that Joyce, to her credit, is deterred. Or needs them. She’s quite the hero. But isolated, nonetheless. However, after Nancy chats to Jonathan and after Hopper does some digging, we can see that the two of them are coming around to seeing that Joyce is right about some things. And that kind of story advancement is exciting and rewarding.

Eleven is in a similar position at the start of this chapter. All three guys have accepted that Will is dead, and have turned on her. A couple of uses of her powers later and… they are back in the fold.

Outside of these narratives, we get some more short scenes with the mysterious and unpleasant Dr. Martin Brenner telling us about the official attempts to investigate this other dimension. Or whatever it is.